Books

[steelworker]

If I could upvote more than once @goosehd I would

[steelworker]

@Tago-Mago liked Journey into Fear too

[Tago Mago]

@steelworker will add it to my list. Only read uncommon danger by him and enjoyed it

[steelworker]

@Tago-Mago its much older, around ww2

[steelworker]

Movie out this week, Danny Lyon photos are wonderful. He has another book on the gutting of lower Manhattan for the wtc

[steelworker]

[Inorganic]

@steelworker whoa...rad photos

[IH-GARY]

@steelworker I've been so looking forward to seeing this movie! Such an important book to our culture. I didn't know about his other book you mention, I will need to try and check it out.

[EdH]

Halfway through listening to The Trolls of Wall Street by Nathaniel Popper. It chronicles the rise of the sub-reddit r/wallstreetbets from a niche forum on people placing bets on the stock market to its users realising that together they are powerful enough to move the markets. It's well written (and the audiobook is well narrated) and I'm enjoying - so far - hearing about how a group of self-described degenerates coalesced and started to screw with the system.

I used to find finance bewildering but books like this which put everything in layman's terms and include the personal stories of the characters involved make it make so much more sense.

[T4920]

@EdH did you ever see the movie Dumb Money about this?

I was caught up in the whole movement myself, and it perfectly captured the hysteria and generally memery around it all

Lost £500, but it was so worth to be part of history!

[EdH]

@T4920 No, haven't seen that one. I did watch the Gamestop short squeeze as a curious onlooker, and have seen a couple of documentaries about it since. Basically kicked off my interest in learning more about this whole side to the way things work, so when I saw this book come out a couple of weeks ago it was a no brainer.

Haven't gotten to the part in the book about Gamestop just yet. Where I'm up to the pandemic is just getting started and WSB is going mental because Robin Hood was down for a few days while the markets rallied after central banks said they'd be supporting the economy.

[Nik]

There's another good finance book out called 'The Trading Game' by Gary Stevenson. It's a memoir about a working class kid from East London who becomes a trader and makes millions, then decides he can't stay in that world.

[EdH]

@Nik already on my Audible wish list.

[Nik]

The author Gary Stevenson is an interesting guy, a new breed of basically socialist influencer. In a more journalistic side of the same kind of person I'm reading Grace Blakeley's book 'Vulture Capitalism'.

[GraemeE]

My wife got me these today for when I get to come home and recover more comortably

[SKT]

I just finished this and really liked it. @Matt if you enjoyed The Ballad of Black Tom I think you’d like this one too.

[iammortalcombat]

This was a store clerks recommendation. Honestly I have no idea what I’m reading. It’s essentially a dark,twisted fairy tale, but the author is one of those “let me just use a thesaurus as part of the material” types.

[popvulture]

@SKT have you read Perceval Everett’s James? I haven’t gotten to it yet but it’s in my to-read pile.

[EdH]

@Nik Really enjoyed The Trading Game, finished listening to it last night. It really helped that the audiobook is read by Gary himself, it's the sort of tale that benefits from the autobiographical voice. He also does a good job with mimicking the accents of the other characters, which helped aid understanding when he's recalling conversations he had with others.

[Nik]

Glad you liked it @EdH cool to hear the audio was good. Stevenson definitely has a great voice.